The new rules are that anyone can now be randomly accused

(This column originally appeared in the Toronto Sun)

By: Candice Malcolm

We now live in a world where a man’s career and livelihood can be destroyed in the blink of an eye. Anonymous accusers can launch a hit piece about events that occurred over a decade ago, distorted by heavy alcohol consumption and the possible desire to unseat a powerful person.

Before anyone can celebrate the shocking resignation of Ontario PC Leader Patrick Brown — just months before an election he was favoured to win — consider how easily these accusations could be launched at anyone, at any time, for almost any reason.

How would you feel if they were launched against your favourite politician? Or how about your son, your brother, your father, your husband, or you?

Accusers no longer require evidence or even a coherent story. They only require a connection to a journalist who works for an outlet willing to sacrifice integrity for a juicy story. It doesn’t even have to be true – just true enough that people will believe it.

The #MeToo movement may have started as a healthy exposé of power and abuse in Hollywood, but it has now digressed into an unabashed victim-fest, where every woman is told she is a “survivor” and every man a predator.

The effort to uncover a real and serious problem has quickly regressed into an ugly and illiberal movement that undermines due process and the rule of law, while completely ignoring human nature.

What one woman may see as a bold gesture in pursuit of romance, another may see as sexual harassment. In other words, it’s often subjective and dependent not upon the man’s actions but how the woman interprets those actions.

We’re heading down a frightening path. And if you have any concerns about where this movement is taking us, look no further than Canada’s top male feminist.

Last week while speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau laid out his vision for this feminist dreamland.

“As women speak up, it is our responsibility to listen, and more importantly, to believe.” According to Trudeau, we have a “responsibility” to believe.

But not everyone is a credible, reliable and accurate source. Some people lie. Some people exaggerate. Some people are bitter and resentful and want to spread their misery. That is why we have courts and a legal system designed to determine who is credible and who is not.

Working to stop legitimate sexual abuse is a noble goal. But that goal won’t be achieved by abandoning the foundations of our free society – including the idea that a person is innocent until proven guilty. Instead, we are sacrificing principles in pursuit of some leftist utopia where we all live in safe spaces and no one ever feels uncomfortable.

In Trudeau’s feminist speech, which was riddled with contradictions and unrealistic accounts of men and women in the workplace, Trudeau welcomed this reactionary swing.

“Treat these examples as a fundamental, essential shift in the way we operate,” he warned.